Rue McClanahan’s Former California Home Selling for $5.495 Million

The late ‘Golden Girls’ star lived there during the run of her show

Rue McClanahan’s former Los Angeles-area home designed by the Playboy Mansion architect Arthur Kelly has hit the market for $5.495 million.

The Emmy-winning actress lived in the single-story, traditional-style house in Encino, California, around the same years that she starred in the beloved and long-running NBC sitcom “Golden Girls.” She bought the home in 1988 for $1.35 million and sold it to a private couple seven years later for $1.6 million, property records show.

The home sits on two parcels spanning 2.61 landscaped acres, which McClanahan made into a sanctuary for herself and her dogs. She was an avid animal welfare advocate who spoke out against wearing fur and animal cruelty. She even appeared in an ad campaign for PETA shortly before her death in 2010 at the age of 76 alongside fellow “Golden Girl” Betty White.

The home still reflects her residence there. In addition to the standard features of a luxury home, like a pool, colorful gardens and an outdoor kitchen area, it has a large dog run at one end of the property, said listing agent Bret Parsons of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

“She expanded the home because she was an animal lover,” Mr. Parsons said. She had an indoor-outdoor room built for her dogs, he said. A floorplan of the home shows a 110-square-foot room dubbed the “dog house.”

The four-bedroom, five-bedroom home has plenty for humans to enjoy, too.

Kelly, the architect who created the Playboy Mansion in 1927, designed the 5,368-square-foot home two decades later. It has a living room with a bar, a skylit dining room, a home theater, music room and maid’s quarters, according to the listing.

The expansive backyard has a large gazebo, children’s playground and paved walkways through the sloping grounds.